Geneva-Based Luxury Watch Brand Frédérique Constant Celebrates 35th Anniversary

The intrepid Swiss watchmaker Frédérique Constant has spent 2023 marking its 35^th anniversary with festive events that celebrate the innovative watch brand’s luxurious, technically advanced; artistically pure philosophy and products. Indeed, Frédérique Constant has come a long way since its 1988 founding and the 1992 launch of its first six models. (Owned by Japan-based Citizen Group, the brand’s extensive collections for men and women include superb tourbillons, classic dress watches, retro tool watches and even smartwatches.) Along with appearing for the first time at Geneva’s 2023 Watches and Wonders event, Frédérique Constant hosted an anniversary blow-out in its home city of Geneva, during which suppliers, customers, retailers and members of the press partied heartily. Jeffrey Cohen, CEO of Citizen Watch America, Constant’s parent company, and Niels Eggerding, CEO of Frédérique Constant, took time out from their time-crunched schedules to explain the high points of the brand’s banner year.

“The Frédérique Constant 35th anniversary is being celebrated globally with a focus on our in-house Manufacture collection,” Cohen wrote in an email. “Frédérique Constant offers classic luxury Swiss-made timepieces at an accessible price and includes quartz, automatic and in-house movements.” Considering its relative youth, the firm boasts an impressive 31 in-house calibers. These embody a rich array of luxury materials, such as platinum, gold and meteorite, along with embellishments like Côtes de Genève and perlage. “Then there are its various complications, such as Worldtimer, perpetual calendar, tourbillon, flyback, moon phase and big date,” Cohen added. Whether consumers are looking for understated, classic elegance or want a major mechanical prestige timepiece, Frédérique Constant delivers a Swiss watch that meets diverse design aesthetics and technical preferences.

In this special year, the brand is also presenting the debut of its 31st in-house caliber, the FC-735, which lives within the Classic Power Reserve Big Date. “We introduced four editions of this during Geneva Watches and Wonders,” Cohen explained. The Classic Power Reserve Big Date Manufacture is an elegant, stainless steel timepiece that measures 40mm in diameter, 12.19 in thickness, with a moon phase dial that injects celestial chic into the mix. Like all Frédérique Constant timepieces, it was created in the brand’s four-story, 34,444 square foot Geneva manufacture, which among other departments, includes movement component production, movement assembly, watch assembly, and quality control.

In the course of a Zoom interview, Frédérique Constant’s longtime CEO Niels Eggerding explained, “This is our first caliber that offers a big date, a moon phase and a power reserve indicator, for a total of 50 hours. The power reserve,” he continued, “is shown at 9 o’ clock by a slim, dedicated hand moving along an arc marked out at 0 to 50, ending in a red zone that warns when it’s time to wind the watch before it stops.” While the first two editions feature a platinum case and meteorite dial or a rose gold case and gray anthracite dial, they come in limited editions of 35 and 350 respectively. The two others, embodied in steel cases with blue or silver dials, form part of the brand’s standard collection.

The three complications, time set function and winding mechanism are all adjusted via the crown at 3 o’ clock. Free of pushers, correctors or styluses, “The FC-735 movement is sophisticated, contemporary, ergonomic, and designed for everyday use,” Eggerding said. To this writer, it seems to encapsulate Frédérique Constant’s intriguing luxury philosophy: prestige, hyper-efficient yet chic watches can also be relatively affordable and hence worn with ease and enjoyment, by watch lovers on every continent.

During its 35^th year, Frédérique Constant also unveiled a new and novel version of a timepiece that embodies the brand’s savoir-faire and philosophy: the Classic Tourbillon Manufacture. Developed and hand-assembled in-house at Constant’s 32,000 square foot Swiss facility, this tourbillon is available in a limited edition of 150 pieces and features three hands housed in a 39-millimeter, 18-karat rose gold case. “In this anniversary year,” Eggerding said, “we feel that the design and technical elements of the Classic Tourbillon Manufacture symbolize our evolution since the brand’s 1988 founding. Shortly after it debuted in 2008,” Eggerding recounted, “our FC-980 movement became one of Constant’s most internationally admired developments, and so we are using it now to power our new Classic Tourbillon Manufacture.”

The cage of this highly collectible timepiece comprises 81 components, including a graceful hand passing above the tourbillon cage that counts the seconds. The cage is engraved with the individual serial number of the watch, as is the sapphire case back, which showcases the inner workings of the FC-980 caliber. Endowed with such traditional fine watchmaking elements as beveling, beading, circular graining, straight-grained flanks and mirror polishing, the movement has a 38-hour power reserve. “We are a young, dynamic brand and our team is a family that’s on a creative and technical adventure,” Eggerding said.

Echoing the words of Frédérique Constant watchmaker Romain Valette, who is quoted on the brand’s website, Eggerding continued,“The art of watchmaking is our passion, innovation is our mission, and the tourbillon is one of the most beautiful interpretations.” Thanks to its skilled team, professional camaraderie and strong interest in innovation,” he added, “Frédérique Constant has become one of the top 25 Swiss watchmaking brands.” In fact, Constant was the first Swiss brand to produce a perpetual calendar watch priced under 10,000 euros. In 2015, it produced the first horological smartwatch, and in 2018, Frédérique Constant brought out the first perpetual calendar tourbillon priced under 20,000 euros. This year, the firm introduced the 39mm Classic Tourbillon at Watches and Wonders, with the steel case version retailing under $16,000. “Nothing else on the market comes close to this,” Cohen asserted. “We also have our top selling Highlife collection, with automatic timepieces under $2,000 that all come with a quick release bracelet and an additional strap to create a versatile look.”

What’s more, Cohen continued, Frédérique Constant’s Classics collection recently launched a COSC or chronometer (high precision watch) version of the Vintage Rally Healey Automatic. Priced at just under $2,000, this limited edition timepiece comes in a special set with a miniature replica of the Healey NOJ393. For those who may be wondering, COSC stands for “Controle Officielle Suisse des Chronomètres, the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute. “COSC certification,” Cohen explained, “guarantees perfect isochronism over a given time and at given positions. In effect, this guarantees their ability to tell the time correctly, consistently and precisely, within the strict limits enforced by an ISO standard.”

In addition to certifying the supreme precision and uniqueness of timekeeping instruments, the certified “chronometer” title is a guarantee of superb horological quality and consummate savoir-faire throughout the production process. In the retail world, a COSC-certified chronometer possesses a third-party proof of superb value which distinguishes it from its competitors. While few chronometers are COSC-certified, all COSC-certified watches are indeed chronometers.

Also coinciding with Frédérique Constant’s 35^th anniversary, Citizen Watch America will be opening its first, multi-brand flagship store in New York City in December 2023. According to Cohen, “The store will be located at 605 Fifth Avenue, across from Rockefeller Center. As New York City is one of the world’s great cultural epicenters, it’s the ideal backdrop for Citizen Watch America’s first US-based, multi-brand flagship.” The 7000 square ft., three story boutique will feature dedicated spaces for Frédérique Constant, along with those for Citizen Watch America’s other brands, which are Citizen, Bulova, Accutron and Alpina. On the first two floors, customers will be able to choose from sport, style, and luxury collections offered by Citizen brands, including timepieces that are sold only at this store. The third level will feature a museum archive and dedicated areas for on-site programming, events and community experiences.

Cohen noted that the timing is right for Frédérique Constant’s flagship opening because, “The brand is growing in the US and is attracting young collectors and watch enthusiasts looking for a high-quality timepiece with Swiss cachet that’s still relatively niche. We continue to see young consumers making significant investments in timepieces with entry level investments ranging from $1200 to $5000,” he wrote. “Automatics have particular resonance with younger consumers.”

While each Frédérique Constant collection attracts a different kind of client, Eggerding added that, “Over the last three or four years, we’ve seen traditional buying patterns for men’s and women’s watches fade as gender identities have become freer; less rigidly defined. Constant’s market research has found that our small women’s watches with diamonds are increasingly being purchased by men,” he detailed, “and it’s also true that more women are self-purchasing Frédérique Constant men’s watches with large dials because these suit their identities, style preferences and budgets.”

As Frédérique Constant gears up to end its 35^th anniversary year with the opening of Citizen America’s multi-brand flagship on Fifth Avenue, it seems likely that this bold, multi-level emporium will attract myriad people into the uniquely luxurious and precise time zone of Constant and its compatriots in the Citizen America group.